WAASUP Puppetry Ministry

We did it! WAASUP made it through the Dalton Threshers parade on September 6th, marking the 4th and final parade performance this summer! It’s our hope that the message that “Jesus Is Life” reached many people who wouldn’t otherwise step foot in a church, and we hope that good things would come from the publicity created for Trinity Lutheran School. As far as our group goes, we’ve been getting more phone calls and emails than ever before, some of which we can probably attribute to this county-wide exposure.

If you were really sharp, you might’ve noticed our very subtle hint in the August newsletter that read, “…you might see some familiar characters popping up at VBS and maybe somewhere else this month.” If you were at a certain surprise birthday party, you know what we were talking about! Our group had a lot of fun getting to poke some fun at Pastor Deterding’s 50th birthday party. We tried something new that we don’t do a whole lot of which was writing and recording all of the speaking parts ourselves. It seemed to go over really well and it’s something we hope to do some more of in the very near future.

Speaking of the very near future, WAASUP has 2 performances just around the corner. We’ve been asked to perform for the grand re-opening of The Promise Shop (the Christian bookstore on Lincoln Ave.) on Saturday, September 27th at 10:30 AM. Then, the very next day we’ll be back at Trinity for the German Heritage Festival following the 10:45 worship service.

We’ve also received calls and emails from other places in the community as well as out of town, so we’ll be sure to keep you all posted!

In Him,
-The WAASUP Team

Since our last monthly update and by the time you read this, WAASUP will have performed in our second and third parades this summer – Battle Lake and Vining. The Battle Lake parade seemed to go off without a hitch (and it was easier on the arms than the much longer Erhard parade!). We really appreciate the supportive cheers and hollers we hear coming from the roadsides and Schan, our driver, tells us that the reaction of the crowds to our float is amazing to see.

Because a handful of our puppeteers couldn’t be there for the Vining parade, we had to enlist the help of some former WAASUP members and some other seasoned performers. We’d like to say a special thank you to Jeff S. and Ben S. from Trinity and to Olivia B. and Sarah S. (both from another puppetry ministry) for their willingness to help us out and make sure His message still got out there! It’d be our pleasure to have you “honorary WAASUPeteers” back anytime!

As mentioned in the last newsletter, Kyle had the chance to teach puppetry at Lutheran Island Camp’s Performing Arts Camp and we want to let you know that it went extremely well! Another special thank you goes out to P.I.C. Jesus puppetry ministry for letting us use their puppets and props and again to Olivia B. for co-teaching the campers. Olivia (who the campers lovingly nicknamed “Pupp”) and Kyle (who they called “Et”) trained the dozen or so junior and senior high youth each morning for a week to get them ready for their performance at closing chapel. The campers all seemed to really enjoy the unique art form, and it’s our hope that theses campers can maybe find a use for puppetry somewhere in their own churches’ ministries.

In other WAASUP news, although we didn’t end up being a part of VBS this year, we did have the chance to perform for a children’s message. If you were there that Sunday, you would have seen that the skit we performed was only about a minute long. That’s because it’s from a package of skits we bought called “Minute Manna” that we thought would work really well for children’s messages. We hope to do more of those in the future.

Keep in mind that we’ll be at the Dalton Threshers parade on September 6!

In Him,
-The WAASUP Team

There’s lotsa news from WAASUP this month…

Our first parade performance was on the Fourth of July in Erhard and, although it was far longer than any parade we’d done before and a real test of our arm strength and endurance, it went really well. Besides getting His message out through our song, we were also happy to promote Trinity Lutheran School with banners on our float, and Shari and Cathy were kind enough to be our “walkers,” who handed out literally hundreds of fliers promoting the school, VBS, and WAASUP. Oh, yeah, and they got to pass out whatever candy they weren’t snacking on…

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our performance in the Henning parade on the 18th due to a scheduling conflict, but you can still catch us at any of the following parades:

Battle Lake, MN  (Chief Wenonga Day) - July 26 at 7:00 p.m.

Vining, MN (Watermelon Day) - August 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Dalton, MN (Threshers) - September 6

In other WAASUP news, Kyle was very blessed with the opportunity to attend the International Festival of Christian Puppetry and Ventriloquism in the Chicago area this past month. He brought back a lot of ideas and inspiration from his week at I-Fest and his time on the Puppetry Dream Team and is very excited to incorporate some of what he learned into our new program.

As you may or may not know, WAASUP all started when Ginny invited a puppetry team director from the Twin Cities to put on a workshop at Trinity to show us what this ministry is all about. Seeing the amazing things that God can start through just one person, we are always excited when we get the chance to go help others get involved. Last year we went to Grand Rapids and put on a workshop to help get a team started at a church up there (and the team is still going!) and now, this last week in July,  Kyle’s been given the chance to teach at Lutheran Island Camp’s Performing Arts Camp, where junior and senior high school students will learn about drama, music, and now, puppetry.

Lastly, not passing up chances to perform at home, you might see some familiar characters popping up at VBS and maybe somewhere else this month.

Consider yourself up-to-date. :)

In Him,
-The WAASUP Team

“Ladies and Gentleman, children of all ages
Anyone listening, I’ve got an announcement to make
There’s been some confusion about a certain someone
A lot of discussion and a lot of debate
So if I may take just a moment to say who Jesus is to me…”

“Jesus is life!” That’s the message our float will be “blasting out” to parade gazers and curb sitters across the county as we find ourselves very blessed again with the chance to perform in a handful of parades this summer! This year’s parade song, “Jesus is Life,” by Steven Curtis Chapman, is a great follow-up to last year’s “Live Out Loud” (also by Chapman) with much of the same energy and excitement and a clear and definite message that our lives are really dead without Him living in us. If all goes well, we hope to perform in the following parades. Watch the bulletin for updates.

Erhard   -   July 4, 11:00 am

Henning   -   July 18, 6:00 pm

Battle Lake (Chief Wenonga Day) -   July 26

Vining (Watermelon Day) -   August 16

Dalton (Threshers) -   September 6

In Him,

-The WAASUP Team

Wendy is finally here! She may be a little late in arriving, but the “Performer’s Choice” puppet that we ordered at the festival in March finally came. She is, to date, the most-professional quality (and most expensive) puppet we have, so we’re very excited to add her to our “cast”! She’s going to play one of the major roles as a cue-card girl turned on-the-spot reporter in our upcoming production, “Stand Firm.”

We are, of course, ever thankful for the ladies who made all of our original puppets for us and we continue to use most of them today, but it is also exciting to get some new characters to work with as we find this ministry continuing to change and grow. We also just got the okay to use some of our donated funds to order our first three blacklight puppets! One will act as a lead singer in “Stand Firm” while the other two, well…let’s just say we don’t want to spoil the show. :)

Never to be overshadowed by new puppets, we’re very pleased to welcome a new puppeteer to the team! Jacob J is coming onboard at a perfect time as he’s already been helping plan out the new production and we know that if he’s anything like his brother and sister, he’ll be a great addition to WAASUP! Now might be a good time to mention that we’re always happy to welcome new members, especially those who fall into our “semi-official age requirement” of going into 7th grade. Welcome, Jacob!

We also want to note that it’s because of support from you and from others who see us perform that we are able to buy these new “ministry tools” that help us improve what we do. As we start to explore blacklight puppetry, we’re also facing new costs associated with the puppets, props, and of course, the lights themselves. So we thank you again for supporting our unique way of helping to spread the Good News to others!

By the way, now that summer’s rolling around, besides putting our new program together, we also hope to show up in a few area parades, so keep your eyes peeled!

In Him,
-The WAASUP Team

If you’ve been following along with WAASUP at all lately, you know that the One Way Street Regional Puppetry Festival took place in Bloomington on March 28th and 29th. I think if we had to sum up everyone’s thoughts about the festival in one word, it would probably be an awestruck and inspired, “Wow.” Rather than try to explain the experience to you, here are a few responses from some of the puppeteers…

“Truly awesome. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I have so many ideas, I can’t even write them down. Thank you so much!”

-Nathan F. J

“It was so much fun getting to see all of the performances and all of the workshops. I really learned a lot!”

-Kayla C

“I really enjoyed seeing the blacklight performances. I think they were pretty inspiring and will definitely give us a lot of new ideas to improve our puppetry skills. Thank you very much!”

-Annelise M. J

“It was amazing! I could not believe all the cool stuff you could do with puppets. Also, I learned how to make our puppet group a lot better. My favorite part was watching the blacklight shows. I hope we as a group will be able to do that kind of performance with blacklight. I encourage those who really want to do this ministry, please join our group. Thank you for all your support!”

-Rebecca D

From all the WAASUP puppeteers, thank you for helping us make this experience possible and thank you for your support of our team and the work that God’s doing through this ministry!

In Him,
The WAASUP Team

February found the WAASUP team busy here at Trinity. On the 10th, we performed “Adam’s Family” for the children’s messages, took the stage down and set it up again in the fellowship hall for the Ladies’ Valentine Dinner. There we performed “Valentine” and “Live Out Loud” (”Live Out Loud” is the song we did for the Summerfest and Henning parades last year). After hearing “Valentine,” Pastor Lange told us that one of the readings for the next Sunday was John 3:16 and he asked if we could do it again. So I guess we had a group first when we did the children’s message two weeks in a row. We’re also getting out into the community as we’ve been invited to perform at a bridal shower at Bethel.

March is going to be a very exciting month for the group for one big reason…the puppet festival! The team, along with some parents (13 or 14 in all), will be attending the One Way Street Regional Puppet Ministry Festival on the 28th and 29th in Bloomington, MN. Pastor Lange, Ginny, and Kyle are the only ones who have been to a festival like this before, so it will be an exciting first for everyone else! At the festival, we’ll watch performances from puppetry ministries from surrounding states, attend workshops on specific areas of the ministry, and in general just be inspired and overloaded with new ideas. Thank you again to everyone who helped make this trip possible and thank you to the Crafters for their generous donation toward buying items at the festival.

-The WAASUP Team

Cameron Camel retired (for the moment anyway) as we wrapped up the last of our “Countdown to Christmas” performances in January. One took place at a pastor’s meeting in Wadena while the other was right here in town at the Broen Home. That made for a grand total of 8 performances around town and around the state! To keep our momentum going, we’re getting ready for some performances here at Trinity.

On February 10th, WAASUP will be doing a new song for the children’s message during both services and, following that, the newly-formed Trinity Men’s Group has invited us to perform a couple “love songs” for the Valentine’s dinner following the services.

And of course, we’re getting excited as the Christian puppetry festival draws closer! Thank you again from all of us for helping send us to this festival to inspire us and to help this ministry continue to grow.

-The WAASUP Team

Wow, what a year! 2007 found the WAASUP Puppetry Ministry growing in leaps and bounds. Among other highlights, we added some puppets and puppeteers, performed downtown for Summerfest, built a wooden “trailer stage” and performed in two parades, put on a workshop to help get a puppet team started at a church in Grand Rapids, and we ended the year by going on the road with our most ambitious project to date, the Countdown to Christmas program.

We are very excited now as we start this new year and we look forward to all the ways God will continue to use this ministry to His glory. One of our goals is to make it to a Christian puppetry festival in the twin cities in March, and I think that the inspiration and creative energy we get from the festival will help toward making this our best year yet!

Happy New Year,

-The WAASUP Team

December is going to be a crazy month for the WAASUP team! We’re putting together a half-hour Christmas musical called “Countdown to Christmas.” In it, Cameron Camel hosts a music countdown, playing the top 5 Christmas songs of the year. Between songs are commercials from sponsors like “Cairo Carl’s Pre-Owned Camel Lot.” We’re currently building a bunch of props and staging the whole program out.

We’re very thankful and excited that we have the opportunity to take this show on the road! We’ve already lined-up a couple performances here in Fergus, and on December 9th we’re performing for both St. John’s Lutheran Church in Park Rapids and our very own Lutheran Island Camp in the evening! We’re still working out a date to perform here at Trinity, too. We’ll keep you posted in upcoming bulletins.

Merry Christmas!
-The WAASUP Team